Just as last time, Boyd felt an intense pressure and then woke up in a completely new place. It was a large dimly lit cavern of orangish rock. He could see to the edge of the walls which were quite distant at some points, but he couldn’t make out details. It was dusty from the cave rock and he coughed whenever he took a deep breath. The whole cavern was substantial but connected to numerous different tunnels of various sizes.
SYSTEM UPDATE: Fleon’s Fine Foray for the Filary is the first Foray to reach level 10!
Welcome to Level 10. Currently, 97/100 Forays remain intact. 6 additional Combatants remain.
Salia looked around. “Nice. Back in first. I told you Angwar was a pussy. Looks like it is a cave level. Low light. Pretty tough pick for this early, but we should be fine. Drink a Low Light potion if you have one. T-20 seconds on bad guys,” Salia said.
"What’s that mean?” Boyd said.
"The same thing it meant last time except instead of 160 two dimensional cactus riding Rank 3 Slenders, we are likely to receive a modest challenge. Every time you enter a new Level you have to prove yourself. We’ll be attacked any second.”
"We just finished fighting the Spookrats though. Can’t we like, take a break or something?” Boyd was panicking. His adrenaline from the last fight had barely had time to subside. He was used to a life of relative leisure, and not one fraught with death multiple times a day. He drew Souldrinker and started waving it around. “Why didn’t we prepare for this?”
"We did,” Jellybean Jenkins answered. He pulled his twin axes Bite and Claw off his back and began applying a green liquid to them. He threw the bottle to Boyd. “Put that on your ridiculous sword.” Boyd looked at the bottle. Inside was a glowing green solution. He tried to open it but, he was nervous and the green solution got on his hands, whereupon he dropped it. The solution burned his fingers and he shook them brisky to try and remove it. Jellybean laughed, “I should’ve known better than to give you something valuable. Your clumsiness has been your undoing. Without this acid you are sure to be overwhelmed by these foul beasts. This battle will be your burial ground. I will feast on your bones! Your marrow will provide my succor when I next breed with the pack!”
Boyd stared blankly at his compassionless colleague, “Jesus…”
“FOOLISH HUMAN! YOUR PITIFUL GOD WILL NOT SAVE YOU NOW!” Jellybean Jenkins roared and leapt into battle.
Approaching them from all sides were critters most equivalent to man-sized, rotting rodents. The few notable differences clearly labeled them as far more threatening. Whereas normal moles have long sharp claws for digging, these moles looked like gross, furrier versions of Wolverine from the X-Men. They moved quickly and vaulted over any obstacle in their way. Their claws glistened in the dark with a wicked edge. Worse yet, Boyd actually smelled them before we saw them. They stunk of rot and death which matched their general appeal. Clumps of black flesh fell off their body as they ran, but was immediately replaced by fresh, new pink flesh that grew like a tumor. Their elongated snouts twitched. Boyd could see their eyes remained closed, but he had no doubt they knew exactly where he was.
"What the fuck are those?” Boyd asked.
“Look for yourself,” said Salia.
Boyd realized he could scan them like anything else.
SYSTEM: Massive Mole Troll, Rank 44 – Most moles are just moles. Most moles are not trolls. These moles are both moles and trolls. In this case, the only attributes they really share with the common troll is the capacity to regenerate from almost injury, and a pack-like hunting mentality. Whatever caused mole trolls to exist is probably just as gross as its very violent and nasty outcome.
From the other direction came a similar groups of creatures, only these were furrier and had their eyes open.
SYSTEM: Vile Vole Troll, Rank 35 – Voles are also not trolls, unless of course regular voles get bit by Mole Trolls and then you get Vole Trolls. While moles and voles aren’t usually friends, Mole Trolls and Vole Trolls are more like fighting a pair of redneck cousins. Sure, they might be pissed and yelling at each other when you show up, but if you step in the middle, the shotguns come out and you realize where the real loyalties lie.
In the back was a much larger version of the Mole Trolls, shouting directions in a language that Boyd couldn’t understand. The creature’s breath was so foul it was visible, and clouded the air with a thick musk.
SYSTEM: Swole Mole Troll Shoal (BOSS, SOUL CATCHER), Rank 86 – Shoal was once just a regular mole, but during a chance encounter, was infected with Trollism in whole. Shoal began feasting upon his fellow underground dwellers at a nearby atoll. He also gained a lot of your typical Trollish behaviors, including sentience, self-reflection, and vitriol. Shoal quickly realized that when it came to life, moles were towards the lower rung of the totem pole. That didn’t sit well with him at all. Eventually he started to get the Trollism dosage right and before long, Shoal was the leader of an entire horde of regenerative moles. It wasn’t long before he also ran into a colony of voles. Shoal now reigns supreme over a horde of hundreds of mole trolls and vole trolls. Oh yea, the only thing Shoal likes more than converting rodents to trollism is exercising his newfound sentience to get swole. Like many a bodybuilder, he lifts hard, gets his gains and then smokes a bowl. Now he’s jacked, which was always his goal. All and all, Shoal is quite the mole, unless you aren’t a rodent, then he’s a major asshole.
Boyd was garnering all that information as the battle had already begun. Moles and voles were already flying into pieces as Jellybean Jenkins hacked his way through his part of the horde with Bite and Claw. Whenever he hit a mole or vole with an axe, their wound burned and they slowly began melting. The problem was that whenever he bit them, or slashed them with his claws or did anything else they immediately regenerated whatever was lost. Gmol was having even less luck. His only means of travel was melting into the cave ground and then appearing elsewhere. Unfortunately most of the ground was covered in moles and voles. This left very little space for Gmol to move around and meant he spent most of his time shooting fiery beams of death at anything that approached, and then trying to escape a horde of paws and claws. The moles and voles had clearly been trained to focus on him, as he was being swarmed from all directions.
Fleon and Salia, in contrast, were doing quite well. Fleon’s sword glowed a white hot burning blaze and seared and singed the moles and voles and he sliced through them. Their claws bounced off his armor with barely a scratch. Salia, realizing moles and voles were both imminently poor flyers, had lifted off and was shooting incendiary rounds at anything she could while nearly attached to the ceiling. It was low, no more than 20-30 feet from the floor, but plenty high enough to keep her safe from any moles or voles, trollish or not.
Boyd, as was typical, had yet to move or fight anything. It all looked incredibly dangerous, and he wasn’t really sure what Jellybean Jenkins had meant, but he had to assume it was probably bad news that he didn’t have any of that green stuff on his sword. Shoal must have also realized this, and correctly assuming that Boyd was the likely weak link in the party, had burrowed underground with a bead on Boyd. He now rocketed forth from the ground, twenty feet in front of Boyd and let forth a yaulp before charging with claws drawn to slice Boyd into many smaller pieces. Boyd urinated on himself and then started yelling commands to Souldrinker.
“Harvest! Harvest! Reap! Sew! Do the fucking sword things sword!”
Souldrinker was used to a very specific set of commands and was confused by Boyd’s random and senseless screaming, but fortunately Boyd had turned on Souldrinker’s automatic features and thus the sword was already well on its way to slicing and dicing. It pulled him forward to meet his adversary in battle. In response, Boyd closed his eyes and let Souldrinker do the work. He felt tugs and pulls and Souldrinker rang in his hands. He whirled and then slid across the floor of the dimly lit cavern.
SYSTEM: You pierce Shoal for 220 damage. You have [temporarily] slain Swole Mole Troll Shoal. No experience awarded.
Boyd opened his eyes and looked up to find that Shoal was impaled on his sword. Not anticipating Boyd’s unintentional, but clever use of physics, he had leapt wrong and ended up with Souldrinker driven right through his heart. Boyd turned his sword and then shoved the giant mole troll off of him. He pulled the sword out and looked down at his kill.
“NO!” Fleon screamed.
When Boyd pulled the sword out he saw Shoal’s flesh start to pulse and coagulate. Within a few seconds he could see the blood congeal and Shoal showed signs of life. Shoal started to stand up and was now smiling a very toothy and malicious grin.
With a stroke of confidence derived from having already killed the mole once, Boyd yelled, “Fuck you mole fucker!” and then charged forward. Shoal was still regenerating and was mostly still, so Boyd slashed Souldrinker with all his might at Shoal’s leg. He felt the sword connect with the bone, but it continued right through the rodent like so much butter. He ended up lopping the entire foot off around the ankle. Not to be deterred, Shoal simply stood up on the other foot. Were Boyd capable of urinating himself further he would’ve, but his bladder was already emptied.
“I can’t fucking kill this thing!” Boyd screamed.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I know,” Salia said.
“Damn Fool! You have to use fire or acid Sir Boyd!” Fleon screamed as he sliced another mole in twain.
“I don’t have any of that. Salia can you burn this thing?”
The number of local bodies around Salia had piled so high that the moles and voles were now using it to vault ever closer to her. A couple of them had caught her by a foot but were quickly removed by the sword that erupted from the VMR’s forearm.
“Kinda busy actually,” Salia said.
Shoal rapidly began regenerating his lost foot and charged on a mixture of foot and stump. He swung his very large log multiple times at Boyd, who dodged the first one, but took the second one to the chest. While he was sure he was dead, it turns out he was not. He awoke with Fleon in hand to hand (actually sword to tree trunk) combat with Shoal. Shoal was surprisingly capable of handling his own, despite Fleon’s superior battle prowess.
Life: 13/88.
“Guys, help! I am going to die!”
“Excellent!” Jellybean Jenkins yelled.
Gmol flashed yellow and a light appeared on top of Boyd. He suddenly felt invigorated again.
Life 78/88.
A rune shot out from Gmol’s stomach into the sky that said “YOU HAVE MANATAP DUMBASS!”
Boyd had completely forgotten about Lifetap and Manatap, two skills he had gotten a while back. Boyd was not particularly prone towards reading to begin with, so the idea of learning about the new skills through anything other than practice seemed silly. Since both his life and Mana were typically full, it made things harder, and given Boyd’s predisposition towards ADHD-like symptoms, he’d largely forgotten. Fortunately, using skills on Zenith was not particularly difficult. As Boyd thought about the word Manatap he felt a surge of energy within his body that reminded him of the “pins and needles” sensation. This was immediately followed by the same feeling he got when Gmol healed him.
Life 88/88.
Mana 52/57
Fleon had been accosted by a dozen rodents and was now stuck dealing with them. Shoal was already back on the attack though and upon seeing Boyd moving again, thumped him on his side sending him flying against the walls of the cave. If Boyd had been slightly stronger, he likely would’ve died as holding his ground mean the next blow would’ve crushed his skull. As it was, the first blow sent him reeling far enough that the next blow missed.
Life 22/88, Mana 52/57
Boyd tapped his Mana again and restored himself back to full.
Life 88/88, Mana 19/57
Rockrot hits you for 5 damage. Rockrot cannot be cured without Essence of Earth.
Life 83/88, Mana 19/57
He looked up to again see his approaching death. Shoal had the log lifted over his head and was running towards with him the intent of the skull-crushing blow that he had missed out on a few seconds ago. Boyd, having assumed death was the most likely outcome already, willing accepted his impending mortality by closing his eyes and thinking of his Mama in Oklahoma. She was kind, and soft and loving. She made an amazing pecan pie and she never yelled at him for coming home drunk, losing his job, or any of the other bullshit he’d pulled. He realized in that moment that he’d see his Mama again in heaven, and compared to his current situation, death didn’t seem so bad.
But the blow didn’t come.
He looked up to see Jellybean Jenkins in ferocious battle with the mole. Shoal and Jellybean Jenkins hacked, slashed, and tore at one another. Despite Jellybean Jenkin’s substantially higher Rank, he was having a tough time with Shoal, which didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the group.
"Double J, you wanna finish that up so we can move on?” Salia asked.
Jellybean Jenkins didn’t respond. Shoal had tripped him with his massive log, and Jellybean Jenkins was currently deftly dodging the blows rolling around on the ground. He caught a blow between his axes, Bite and Claw, and used this moment to vault himself back to his feet.
“Something is wrong! This one is impossibly strong,” Jellybean yelled.
Fleon beheaded another vole and stopped to scan Shoal.
SYSTEM: Swole Mole Troll Shoal (BOSS), SOUL CATCHER, FIRE RESISTANT, ACID RESISTANT, COLD RESISTANT, HOLY RESISTANT), Rank 686.
Fleon stopped to best another vole and then quickly scanned Shoal again.
SYSTEM: Swole Mole Troll Shoal (BOSS), SOUL CATCHER, FIRE RESISTANT, ACID RESISTANT, COLD RESISTANT, HOLY RESISTANT, IMPACT RESISTANT), Rank 704.
Fleon screamed, “It has to be the Soul Catcher buff. Every time we kill one of these other rodents he gets stronger. He’s already gained resistances to most forms of damage. What stops a troll’s regeneration other than acid or fire?”
“Nothing!” Salia screamed. As she set another vole on fire.
“Stop killing the other ones, you are just making things worse!” Fleon screamed as he engulfed yet another mole troll in flames. “You’ll have to incapacitate them without killing them.”
Salia ignited another mole with the flamethrowers on her arm. “Not my specialty,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jellybean Jenkins was still furious dealing with the increasingly dangerous menace that was Shoal. They went toe to toe for several minutes, landing blow after blow on each other. The difference was that every time Jellybean got hit, he looked a little slower and a little weaker. Every time Shoal got hit, it regenerated faster and faster.
Boyd could see Jellybean Jenkin’s life pool floating just above one quarter of his maximum and it was slowly sinking.
“We cannot kill this one with normal means. It regenerates everything I throw at it.” Jellybean Jenkins screamed across the battlefield.
“I got an idea!” (Agent of Chaos activated) Boyd yelled.
He started yelling the commands until Souldrinker activated again. Reap. Feed. Feed. Harvest. Corrupt. Harvest. Harvest. Reap. Corrupt. Feed. Souldrinker glowed and came alive. He had no idea if this would work, but at least it was an idea. He charged into battle and began swinging Souldrinker at Shoal. The troll was immensely quick at this point, easily Boyd/Souldrinkers blows. It struck back at him but Jellybean joined the fight to intercept the blows. Jellybean Jenkins and Boyd now fought side by side, each of them incapable of hitting the Shoal. Shoal lifted his log above his head and crashed it down to the earth between them, shattering the ground around them. They dodged in opposite directions and then charged forward as a team. “Just get him down and I think I can take care of it!” Boyd yelled.
Shoal laughed at their charge, throwing the log at Boyd. Souldrinker pulled briskly at him and forced him to slide just in time as the log sailed harmlessly above his head. Behind him, the force of the throw echoed throughout the cavern. In turn, Jellybean threw both axes at Shoal and quickly followed it tooth and nail. The axes missed their target but accomplished their goal. When Shoal dodged, Jellybean Jenkins slashed him across the hamstring, crippling his leg. Boyd came in from behind and lopped at the mole’s head with all his might. He connected and felt the tissue crunch under the sword’s edge. Jellybean Jenkins pounced on the wound, tearing at the mole swollen neck. He tore tendons and bone out from the wound as fast as they could regrow. The mole was strangling Jellybean Jenkins as he tore the regenerative flesh out piece by piece.
“Whatever it is you are doing, you best do it now!” Salia said as she set another mole aflame.
Gmol let off a blast of light that knocked back literally dozens of voles and moles. Boyd could tell his health was dangerously low.
Boyd concentrated on Souldrinker until it activated. He selected Feed from the menu and selected Shoal as the target. He didn’t know what would happen if he tried to pull an uncorrupted Soul from a creature, but he thought it might be there only chance. He felt Souldrinker start to burn in his hands and he could barely maintain his grip. His vision began to blur and he could feel the Blade invading his mind. He saw Shoal’s body started to shake. Boyd could see the mole’s Soul fight and tug at the edges of his body. He stared thoughtlessly as the sword pulsed and glowed. Shoal’s essence, a shadowy grey ghost-like silhouette slowly rose from his body screaming in agony. Jellybean Jenkins continued to rip and tear as the creature fought to live. He took claw after claw full of blood and tissue and threw it behind him, ripping the creature to shreds as it instantly regenerated. Meanwhile, Shoal’s soul thrashed and dived back in and out of its body. Souldrinker shot out more and more tendrils which dug deep into the body of Shoal, then enveloped the Soul of Shoal as it strained to get back into his body. The tendrils tore at the Soul before finally ripping it out of the Mole Troll’s body permanently. Boyd started to lose conscience as Souldrinker’s power arched through him. He felt sick and nauseated. He felt the life being drained from him as the swords power throbbed. He gave into the sensation eventually, unable to resist and unable to fight back. His vision switched perspectives constantly, sometimes he was looking up, sometimes he was looking outward everywhere, sometimes he was just Boyd. He felt constant internal and external pressure. More and more pressure. The pressure became so great he couldn’t think. He tried to scream but he didn’t have a voice. He tried to scream but it just came out as sounds he couldn’t understand. His existence became concentrated pain. He writhed, even thought he knew it wasn’t him.
Boyd heard Fleon screaming “No!” and thought Fleon was running towards him to help.
Then it all just stopped.
He was barely aware that the battle had ended and the mole troll’s body now laid motionless. The other moles and voles had turned tail and headed back into their burrows with the death of their leader.
SYSTEM: You have slain [Shoal] via [Soul Consumption]. You have gained 30 experience.
You are now Rank 9 Swordsoul
You gain 5 skill in Greatwords
You gain 1 attribute point.
Achievement: Over 1,000! You have killed a creature greater than Rank 1,000. You are either extremely lucky, or extremely strong. This is an extremely rare achievement. You have gained an extremely rare amount of experience. You gain 4,474.68 bonus experience.
You are now Rank 10 Swordsoul.
You gain 5 skill in Greatwords.
You gain 1 attribute point.
You are now Rank 11 Swordsoul.
You gain 5 skill in Greatswords.
You gain 1 attribute point.
You gain the skill Cleave.
You are now Rank 12 in Swordsoul.
You gain 5 skill in Greatswords.
You gain 1 attribute point.
You may select your first Fighting Style.
You are now Rank 13 in Swordsoul.
You gain 5 skill in Greatswords.
You gain 1 attribute point.
You are now Rank 14 in Swordsoul.
You gain 1 attribute point.
Your bond with your blade intensifies.
You are now Rank 15 in Swordsoul.
You gain 2 attribute points.
You gain an additional 5 points in Strength.
You have evolved the weapon “Souldrinker, Harbinger of Doom, Drinker of Souls, The Bloodslave, That Which Was Possessed By He Who Is Doomed, Unholy Beacon of The Endless Night, The Wretched Finger of Bah’Xheael of the Ninth Layer of Hell”. It will be know known as “Trolldrinker, Harbinger of Doom, Drinker of Souls, The Bloodslave, That Which Was Possessed By He Who Is Doomed, Unholy Beacon of The Endless Night, The Wretched Finger of Bah’Xheael of the Ninth Layer of Hell, Cage of Mortal Souls, the Trollsbane.” Your bond with Trolldrinker has strengthened. You may summon the Soul of Shoal to inhabit other corpses. He will serve as a temporary companion under your control. This has a very high Soul cost. Shoal maintains all facets of the version you absorbed into the Blade. He will remain summoned for 10 minutes.
Boyd looked down at Trolldrinker, nee’ Souldrinker. A gleam of light undulated up and down the blade. Inside those undulations, Boyd could see the face of a troll. It screamed in futility. It was struggling to get out.